Inside Man (2006) - Lee's delicious heist thriller

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Text and small, slim stills at slanted angles upon a white background make up this poster for Spike Lee's Inside Man

An elaborate bank heist takes place in New York by a mysterious team of robbers, who take the staff hostage, while a police negotiator tries to get the criminals out without any bloodshed, and the bank's founder hires a fixer to make sure his vault's secrets are not stolen.

Inside Man is written by Russell Gewirtz (Blind Justice (2005)) and directed by Georgian master filmmaker Spike Lee (Joe's Bed-Stuy Barbershop: We Cut Heads (1983)), whose 20th feature it is.

It it an intelligent and very well carried out thriller and an unusual Lee 'joint': He did not participate in its writing, as he is wont to do, and it is a more 'straight' genre picture than most of his films. But Inside Man still has the Lee touch: It is rife with buddy mood, and Denzel Washington (The Hurricane (1999)) is terrific as the 'small-time New-Yorker' who saves the day. 

The story is captivating, and the performances are way above the standard in most thrillers, most prominently Washington, but Jodie Foster (The Brave One (2007)) is also good as the frightening fixer, and so is Christopher Plummer (Starcrash (1978)) as the conscience-plagued bank founder. There's a keen double-meaning to the movie's title.

 

Related posts:
 
Spike Lee: The day after the day after ... the 2019 Oscars

She Hate Me (2004) or, Champion of the Lesbians 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 
Top 10: Best crime movies reviewed by Film Excess to date
25th Hour (2002) or, Taking a Second Chance 

1998 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  

He Got Game (1998) - Lee's basketball classic 

 

 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 45 mil. $
Box office: 186 mil. $

= Big hit (returned 4.13 times its cost)

[Inside Man was released 16 March (Netherlands) and runs 129 minutes. Shooting took place from June - August 2005 in New York. The film opened #1 to a 28.9 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#2-#4), grossing 88.5 mil. $ (47.6 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 14.4 mil. $ (7.7 %) and France with 9.3 mil. $ (5 %). The film won an AFI award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 2.5/4 star review, translating to 2 notches under this one. The film additionally made an estimated 38.6 mil. $ on home video sales in North America alone. Lee returned with 4 TV and short projects prior to his theatrical return Miracle at St. Anna (2008). Washington returned in Deja Vu (2006); Clive Owen (Killer in Red (2017, short)) in Children of Men (2006); and Foster in The Brave One (2007). Inside Man is certified fresh at 86 % with a 7.30/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Inside Man?

Contact (1997) - Zemeckis helms one of the all-time worst sci-fi pics

[ZERO]

 

+ Worst Movie of the Year

+ Most Deserved Flop of the Year + Most Overrated Movie of the Year 

 

Two Hollywood stars line up in front of a row of giant satellites on this poster for Robert Zemeckis' Contact

 

Dr. Ellie Arroway has always been preoccupied with the possibility of life in space, so that when the day comes when strange sounds arrive to earth from somewhere out there, she becomes central for the US response to the news.

Contact is written by James V. Hart (Hook (1991)) and Michael Goldenberg (Bed of Roses (1996)), adapting the same-titled 1985 novel by Carl Sagan, and directed by Illinoisan master filmmaker Robert Zemeckis (I Wanna Hold Your Hand (1978)), whose 11th feature it is.

After a very long space intro using CGI, - the film also later has fair CGI effects, - the absolute nightmare that is Contact begins. Harmlessly at first, but soon it becomes clear that Jodie Foster (Flight Plan (2005)) is here trapped in an insufferable abomination of a film in a non-character, who gets a bit of nonsense to spout to mark that she represents 'science', whereupon she has to confront apathy, stupidity, lack of curiosity and braindead 'religious' examinations throughout the film.

Contact is enormously tiring in every aspect: Among them are Matthew McConaughey (Sahara (2005)), who here looks like a surfer and talks like a Texan farmhand, - but is a Christian philosopher (!!), who waxes on. 

We never get to the aliens or anything eye-opening, provocative or exciting. Rarely has a big-budget studio epic been this modest, empty and insufferable. Contact is terrible on every level.

 

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The 2010s in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess  

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2012 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II] 

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2012 in films - according to Film Excess

Flight (2012) - Character study masterpiece from Zemeckis and Washington 

1997 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess 

Back to the Future Part III (1990) or, The DeLorean Time Traveler's Last Adventure 

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Back to the Future Part II (1989) or, The DeLorean Time Traveler Returns 

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Top 10: Best fantasy movies reviewed by Film Excess to date 
Back to the Future (1985) or, The DeLorean Time Traveler

1941 (1979) - Spielberg's bizarre 'comedy spectacular' sinks like a rock (co-writer) 

Watch a trailer for the film here

 

Cost: 90 mil. $

Box office: 171.1 mil. $

= Big flop (returned 1.90 times its cost)

[Contact was released 11 July (North America) and runs 150 minutes. Contact was first envisioned as a film by Sagan and his then girlfriend Ann Druyan but then written as a novel first instead. It was developed as a movie with Roland Joffé and then George Miller attached as director: The former quit, and the latter was fired, before the project landed with Zemeckis. Foster was paid 9 mil. $ for her performance. Shooting took place from September 1996 - February 1997 in Arizona, New Mexico, Florida, California, including in Los Angeles, Virginia, Washington DC, Fiji, Canada and in Puerto Rico. The film opened #2, behind holdover hit Men in Black, to a 20.5 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 2 weekends in the top 5 (#3-#4), grossing 100.9 mil. $ (59 % of the total gross). The film's international gross numbers are regrettably not made public. The film was nominated for the Best Sound Oscar, lost to Titanic. It was also nominated for a Golden Globe, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to 5 notches over this one. The White House were unhappy with the film's use of Bill Clinton quotes (about other matters) as part of its narrative; CNN were unhappy with their participation in the film; and George Miller and Francis Ford Coppola both unsuccessfully sued Warner Bros. over the film. Zemeckis returned with Robert Zemeckis on Smoking, Drinking and Drugging in the 20th Century: In Pursuit of Happiness (1999, TV documentary) and theatrically with What Lies Beneath (2000). Foster returned in Anna and the King (1999); McConaughey in Amistad (1997). Contact is fresh at 67 % with a 6.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Contact?

Flightplan (2005) - Foster rules in well-shot, uneven plane thriller

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Jodie Foster looks very intense and has freakishly bright-blue eyes on this poster for Robert Schwentke's Flightplan

A woman flies from Berlin to New York with her newly deceased husband's body and their young daughter. But the girl disappears in the 400+ seat plane, and the question gets raised as to whether she was even on the plane in the first place?

Flightplan is written by Peter A. Dowling (Stag Night (2008)) and Billy Ray (Overlord (2018)) and directed by Robert Schwentke (RED (2010)). 
Jodie Foster (Kansas City Bomber (1972)) is fascinating, giving a magnetic performance as the mother who fights for her daughter, and she is the main reason to watch Flightplan. SPOILER Unfortunately Peter Sarsgaard (The Man in the Iron Mask (1998)) gives a stiff and unexciting performance as the terrorist villain, and the climax arrives rather flat.
Flightplan is a pressurized plane-set thriller, which also manages its cabin-restricted visuals very well, (cinematographer Florian Ballhaus (The Book Thief (2013))).

Related post:

Robert Schwentke: RED (2010) - Schwentke's utterly hollow comic book adaptation

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 50 mil. $
Box office: 223.3 mil. $ 
= Big hit (returned 4.46 times its cost)
[Flightplan premiered 22 September (Serbia and Montenegro, Israel and Syria) and runs 98 minutes. Dowling got the idea for the film in 1999, and Ray later influenced the script after the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Filming took place in Germany, including Berlin, and in California, including Los Angeles, in and around September 2004. The interior plane cabin set was built from scratch, inspired by the Airbus A380. The film opened #1 to a 24.6 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed #1 for another week and in the top 5 for another 2 weeks (#2-#4), grossing 89.7 mil. $ (40.2 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 25.7 mil. $ (11.5 %) and Germany with 14.5 mil. $ (6.5 %). Roger Ebert gave the film a 3.5/4 star review, translating to two notches higher than this one. The film also made a reported, whopping 79.2 mil. $ on DVD rentals alone, which, if added into the calculation, would change its status to that of a 'huge hit'. Schwentke returned with an episode of Lie to Me (2009, TV-series) and theatrically with The Time Traveler's Wife (2009). Foster returned in Inside Man (2006). Flightplan is rotten at 37 % with a 5.3/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Flightplan?

Elysium (2013) - Blomkamp's second feature is a pompous, tedious sci-fi exercise

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Matt Damon is bald, wears strange metallic extensions and finds himself in space on this poster for Neill Blomkamp's Elysium

In the year 2154, the world is a miserable place, where people speak Spanish, are dirty and poor, listen to bad hiphop and all dream of escaping to the space station Elysium, where the rich few live a jet set life, wearing white clothes and speaking French.

This ridiculously shallow premise is rolled out here as a highly improbable future scenario, as simplistic as it is dumb. Elysium is written and directed by Neill Blomkamp (Chappie (2015)), whose sci-fi sensation debut District 9 (2009) also really wasn't my cup of tea. 
Jodie Foster (Paper Moon (1974), TV-series) gets wasted in the part of the tough space leader. Matt Damon (Gerry (2002)) is boring in the lead and goes into a predictable Bourne fist fight mode a while into Elysium. Blomkamp's District 9 star and fellow South-African Sharlto Copley (Europa Report (2013)) plays an off-putting villain here.
Elysium's implicit societal critique and warnings lie comfortably in the same shallow, unapplicable, leftist vein as District 9, where Blomkamp's opinions are still expressed rather weakly and without binding him to anything really. Above all this space actioner is unmerited and enormously dull.

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2013 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED V]
District 9 (2009) - Blomkamp's strenuous, sci-fi-dressed Johannesburg squalor

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 115 mil. $
Box office: 286.1 mil. $
= Minor flop (according to Film Excess' ratio standards; according to Sony, it made an 18 mil. $ profit)
[Elysium premiered 7 August (Taiwan) and runs 109 minutes. Blomkamp has stated that although the film is set far in the future, the themes of immigration, overpopulation, health care, worker exploitation, social class issues and the justice system are meant as comments on the world of today. Blomkamp initially wanted South-African rapper Watkin Tudor Jones for the lead, then Eminem. None proved possible, and Damon was the third choice. He shaved his head for the film. Shooting took place in British Colombia, Canada, including Vancouver, and in Mexico City, Mexico from July - September 2011 with re-shoots in October 2012. A screenplay copyright infringement lawsuit was filed against Elysium's producers in 2013, but its conclusion has not been made public. The film opened #1 to a 29.8 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it stayed in the top 5 for one more week (#3) and grossed 93 mil. $ (32.5 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 25.6 mil. $ (8.9 %) and Russia with 15.8 mil. $ (5.5 %). Although its gross makes it a minor flop according to Film Excess' ratio standards, the 2013 Sony hack revealed that Sony itself assessed that the film made an 18 mil. $ profit. Blomkamp admitted in 2015 about Elysium that he "fucked it up" because his script "just wasn't there; the story wasn't fully there." He returned with Chappie (2015), and Damon returned in The Zero Theorem (2013). Elysium is fresh at 67 % with a 6.5/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Elysium?

The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002) - Care's heart-warming, mega-flopping coming-of-age debut

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+ Best Independent Movie of the Year

The comic book-inspired poster for Peter Care's The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys

QUICK REVIEW:

We are in a Catholic school in the American South in the 1970s, where 4 boys are drawing superheroes and pulling pranks like stealing the saint statue from the school. One of them now gets a girlfriend, and lots of tensions arise.

Altar Boys thrives on its dream cast: Kieran Culkin (Igby Goes Down (2002)), Emile Hirsch (The Mudge Boy (2003)), Jena Malone (Donnie Darko (2001)), Vincent D'Onofrio (Jurassic World (2015)) and Jodie Foster (The Silence of the Lambs (1991)), who was also a co-producer on the film. They are all absolutely wonderful in this coming-of-age youth drama.
It is filmed with nice, rich colors by Lance Acord (Being John Malkovich (1999)) and interlaced with super-cool animated sequences that detail the boys' comic book fantasies and their conceptions of themselves.
The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys is an adaptation of the semi-autobiographical 1994 novel by Chris Fuhrman, written by Jeff Stockwell (Children of the Machine (2015-)) and Michael Petroni (The Book Thief (2013)) and directed by music video director Peter Care (Six Feet Under (2004), TV-series) as his feature debut. The film has a surprising ending, which I liked.
This is a good film.

 

Related post:

 

2002 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I] 

Watch the trailer for the film - with Spanish subtitles - here

Cost: 12 mil. $
Box office: 2 mil. $
= Mega-flop
[This considerably budgeted debut independent film received mostly good reviews, but failed to attract the audiences it needed: It never even crossed 100 screens in North America, where it grossed 1.7 mil. $ (85 % of the total gross), and internationally, it seems it was only released to Italy, Spain and Mexico, - perhaps because these are big Catholic markets, - but it never did much business there either. The film did win the Best First Feature award at the Independent Spirit Awards, but Care hasn't come back since this major flop.]

What do you think of The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys?

Carnage (2011) - Polanski castigates modern parents in greatly satirical play adaptation

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2 Time Film Excess Nominee:


Best Director: Roman Polanski (lost to Agnieszka Holland for In Darkness)
Best Editing: Hervé de Luze (lost to The Artist)

+ Best New York Movie of the Year

The Andy Warhol-inspired, cool poster for Roman Polanski's Carnage

Two sophisticated, married New Yorker-couples meet in the one couple's apartment, because the other couple's son has hit their son hard with a stick.

Carnage is an adaptation of the 2006 play God of Carnage/Le Dieu du Carnage. The screenplay is co-written by master filmmaker, co-writer/director Roman Polanski (Rosemary's Baby (1968)) and playwright Yasmina Reza (Art (1994)). Polanski's direction, Pawel Edelman's (Venus in Fur (2013)) cinematography and Hervé de Luze's (The Pianist (2002)) editing is bulletproof in this excellent satire.
All four great lead actors deserve favorable mention for their fully engaged performances in Carnage: Jodie Foster (The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys (2002)), Kate Winslet (Revolutionary Road (2008)), Christoph Waltz (Big Eyes (2014)) and John C. Reilly (We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)). Both of the very different couples get their faults brandished mercilessly in the course of the film, but it is especially the over-reaching falseness and invasive beliefs of the politically correct liberal (Foster's character) that Polanski seethes his teeth into.
The heightened reality of the stage is transferred successfully into this film version, which can be described as a condensed societal attack, one that grows increasingly acidly funny as the thin veils of civilized behavior drop. - And dark. It is really perfect material for Polanski.
SPOILER The ending is a little abrupt, and it leaves it up to the viewer to assess the possible merits of the meeting of good-willed modern couples that has taken place.

 
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2011 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2011 in films - according to Film Excess
The Ghost Writer/The Ghost (2010) - A master at work 
Chinatown (1974) - Polanski's masterpiece 
Cul-de-Sac (1966) - Edge-of-the-world island tale meanders at times, but is ultimately a winner

Watch the great trailer for the film here

Cost: 25 mil. $
Box office: 27.6 mil. $
= Huge flop
[Carnage was a French/German/Polish/Spanish co-production, which, it seems, was made on an over-blown budget, (it should have been no more than 10 mil. $ in my view), and therefore ended with burning red numbers. The film had a good run in European countries like Italy, where it ended up making 3.2 mil. €, but only made a very discouraging 2.5 mil. $ in the US (9 % of the total gross).]

What do you think of Carnage?

The Beaver (2011) - Odd depression-dramedy with great stars - for the open-minded

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Mel Gibson bonds with a hand-puppet beaver to get over his depression in Jodie Foster's The Beaver

QUICK REVIEW:

Walter Black is chronically depressed, and his family can't stand it any longer. But then he starts to cure himself with the Beaver, a hand-puppet...
The Beaver walks the fine balance between absurd comedy, drama and a credible portrait of living with depression at the same time. It is actually a fine little film.
Mel Gibson (Signs (2002)) and Jodie Forster (The Silence of the Lambs (1991)), - who also directed the film, - play the married, struggling couple with the high class that you would expect from them. Anton Yelchin (Fierce People (2005)) is unimpressive as a son, while Jennifer Lawrence (Winter's Bone (2010)) is good as a love interest for him. But the student speech about loss and grief, - a key storyline in the film, - is somewhat unoriginal.
The Beaver has a nice symbolism going for it about amputation and roller coasters.
Unfortunately, this, Foster's third movie as a director (following Little Man Tate (1991) and Home for the Holidays (1995)) was a major flop. - Probably just too odd for most audiences, which is a bit of a shame, since it's not a bad movie, or really all that obscure, at all. Might also have been that many audiences hadn't forgiven Gibson yet for some of the things that had been written about his ugly, personal scandals in the tabloids.

Related review:

Jodie Foster: The Brave One (2007) - Acting in the afterwake of random, deadly violence (actress)

Watch the trailer here

Budget: 21 mil. $
Box office: 6.3 mil. $
= Huge flop

What do you think of The Beaver?
Other unusual cinematic portrayals of depression that you can think of?

The Brave One (2007) - How to act in the afterwake of random, deadly violence

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Star Jodie Foster looks like she is blaming herself something terrible while holding a gun on this yellow-tinged poster for Neil Jordan's The Brave One

When Erica Bain and her boyfriend are beaten up at random under a tunnel in a park in New York, he dies from his injuries. She subsequently loses her sense of self and changes into another person: A person on a vendetta. First based on self-defense, but soon after with acts of vigilante justice.

 
The Brave One is written by Cynthia Mort (Roseanne (1994-97)), Bruce A. Taylor (Instant Karma (1990)) and Roderick Taylor (Super Force (1990-92)) and directed by Neil Jordan (Angel (1982)).

I enjoyed the suspense-elements of Jodie Foster's (The Silence of the Lambs (1991)) Bain's relationship to the police detective (played by Terrence Howard (Fighting (2009))), who seems close to knowing her involvement in the deaths of city hoodlums, but neglects to actively find this out because he quietly condones it. But it is the moral question of the right or wrong of committing vigilante justice that is the driving core of The Brave One. In that light, it is an inappropriate title for the film, unless it is meant as a compliment to the Bain character for confronting her demons, which she does in the film. Inappropriate because it seems to have already decided that she is right to do so with deadly force.
The film is like a character study of that woman, and Foster is just the gutsy actress who can make it stick. The film has a neat visual expression and a sparse score by Dario Marianelli (V for Vendetta (2005)).

Related posts:

Neil Jordan: 1994 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess

Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994) - Jordan's tame, platonically gay vampire yawner 

 

Watch a trailer for the movie here

Cost: 70 mil. $
Box office: 69.7 mil. $
= Huge flop (returned 0.99 times its cost)

[The Brave One premiered 6 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 122 minutes. Foster received 15 mil. $ for her performance in the film, reportedly the largest paycheck of her career. Shooting took place around June 2006 in New York. The film opened #1 to a 13.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent one more weekend in the top 5 (#3), grossing 36.7 mil. $ (52.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 4.2 mil. $ (6 %) and Japan with 3.3 mil. $ (4.7 %). The film was nominated for a Golden Globe, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3.5/4 star review, translating to a notch over this one. Jordan returned with Ondine (2009). Foster returned in Nim's Island (2008). The Brave One is rotten at 31 % at Rotten Tomatoes.]

 

What do you think of The Brave One?